1997 – Move On was established with financial ‘start up’ support from the Big Issue in Scotland to provide a range of services for people affected by homelessness. Our first services provided crisis driven reactive housing resettlement support for homeless people, many of whom were roofless.
1998 – Following significant investment in crisis services through the Rough Sleepers Initiative, Move On re-focused our services to offer more structured longer-term proactive homelessness prevention work, with a focus on supporting people to make a sustainable move away from homelessness.
1999 – Listening to service user feedback, we developed our first employability service in Glasgow, working with mainly homeless men aged between 25 and 35 who also had significant addiction issues. With financial support from Scottish Enterprise, this service was soon supporting people into and towards employment training and further education. Concerned at the number of people using our services who had previously been looked after, we developed our first preventative service using a peer education approach to target looked-after young people in Edinburgh. We soon added a Lottery-funded 1:1 support service for people who had been homeless and needed support to manage in the community. Over time we developed a successful peer education approach offering opportunities for young people who had experienced homelessness and the care system the opportunity to become volunteers.
2002 – Move On’s first mentoring service introduced for care-experienced young people, establishing a “triangular” relationship between Move On staff, volunteer mentor and mentee to help them achieve SMART goals leading to improved employability.
2002 – Move On’s volunteer peer educators write, direct and appear in “Don’t Get Lost”, an advice video targeting young people leaving care.
2003 – Three Move On volunteers are presented with awards by Scotland’s First Minister in recognition of their volunteering.
2004 – The Communities Minister visits Move On’s Edinburgh office to present volunteers with certificates of achievement.
2005 – Move On’s Glasgow-based Literacy and Numeracy service is established with financial support from Glasgow City Council.
2005 – Move On’s peer education services are established in Glasgow and reach over 1,000 vulnerable young people for the first time.
2006 – Move On secures our first contracts and service level agreements, reducing dependence on grant funding.
2007 – To mark our 10th birthday, Move On holds “Making the Move” in Glasgow, a conference focusing on employability and homelessness. Attended by more than 140 people, the conference, much of it planned and delivered by our service users and volunteers, proved an enormous success.
2008 – Move On loses funding for our Floating Support Service supporting homeless people in Glasgow to manage in the community.
2009 – We secured Inspiring Scotland investment, against stiff competition, to develop our employability and homelessness prevention activities for 14-19 year olds.
2009 – As part of the Gateway Consortium in Edinburgh, Move On offers visiting support for people who have previously been homeless to help them sustain their tenancy.
2012 – We piloted a peer mentoring approach, recruiting volunteer mentors who had themselves experienced care and/or homelessness. This has now been extended to ensure that volunteer mentors have a varied mix of backgrounds to best meet the needs of the most hard to reach young people.
2013 – Move On awarded the Scottish Mentoring Network “Mentoring for Young People Award”.
2014 – Move On accredited as an SQA Approved Centre and starts offering qualifications at SCQF levels 3 or 4 in Employability and Personal Development and Literacies Core Skills.
2014 – Move On gained Edinburgh’s Joined Up For Jobs Customer Charter Award
2015 – Move On achieves Scottish Mentoring Network Quality Award.
2015 – Move On secures a contract with Skills Development Scotland to offer employability skills training to disadvantaged young people in Glasgow.
2015 – Connect 2, an employability programme offered by a Glasgow consortium including Move On, awarded Big Lottery Funding to 2018.
2015 – Move On gains Investors in Young People accreditation.
